The president threatened to undo the 14th Amendment’s guarantee to birthright citizenship — although he almost certainly lacks the authority to do so — although McCain didn’t necessarily sound morally opposed the the idea.

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“Most conservatives that I know, and my husband being at the top of this, are very strict constitutionalists, and amending it — it would be a really big thing,” McCain said. “In the past, it has abolished slavery and given women the right to vote. It’s thrown things one way or the other.”

McCain said she’d hoped her father, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), would have solved the issue politically by now.

“I so hoped for comprehensive immigration reform at this point in my life,” she said. “I know everyone is sick of me talking about my dad, but it really was the cornerstone of what he and (Sen.) Ted Kennedy (D-MA) were trying to do with the ‘Gang of Eight.'”

“If both sides had actually come together and had some meeting in the middle,” she continued, “it wouldn’t be one extreme where — and this is a stereotype, that people on the left want open borders and don’t care about national security and people on the right are heartless and don’t want anyone to come anywhere at all. I think most Americans can meet somewhere in the middle.”

“When we talked about ‘DREAMers’ and DREAM Act students and people like that, I just had so wished we would be further along than this,” McCain added, “because using this as a siren song, as you eloquently put, Abby, to make voters care about the midterm election, this fear mongering, it’s very effective. It’s irrational, but it’s effective.”

Co-host Joy Behar said that middle ground had always been a mirage, and that Trump had purposefully stirred up anti-immigrant hysteria to motivate Republican voters.

“That’s not true,” McCain said. “They were protesting outside my home when I was young, calling (him) ‘Jose’ McCain and Lindsey ‘Gomez’ (Graham) as stereotypes.”

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She blamed both sides for those attacks.

“My father and Lindsey Graham were vilified, and it’s not that long ago, for trying to bring comprehensive immigration reform, and it was the left that did it, as well, and right,” McCain said. “I’m exhausted. I would like for us to have comprehensive immigration reform.”